You may see that as a leading question. Well, it is. It's not a question of if you are biased or not, it is how. Everyone has bias. It's how we make decisions. We all have favorites and things we dislike and those shape our perceptions. How you see the world impacts how you think others make decisions. It's important to recognize that you have a bias and how it affects your judgment. If you really like a particular type of music, you are apt to […]

You might suggest the purpose of a sales presentation is to entertain. And while that may be amusing, I'd suggest that this is not the purpose.You might say it's to educate. And while that might be interesting, I'd suggest that this is also not the purpose.The purpose of a sales presentation is to enable a decision. In other words, to enable the customer to make a good decision in their own best interest during that meeting.In order for them to make a good decision dur […]

Many salespeople have a tendency to see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. When a customer asks about a product or service your company offers, one of the many things you want to know is if budget has been established or not.  If you learn that the project has already been funded and their budget is established, not wearing rose-colored glasses can help you to understand why you need to examine this "good news" with a critical eye. Has a competito […]

How can you prepare and execute high-impact conversations with your customers?   If you have been reading our blog, you know that we always begin with the “End In Mind" (EIM). Since a solid EIM is the foundation upon which the rest of the Call Plan is built, the first step of the Call Plan is to identify the EIM: “What you want the customer to say, do, or decide at the end of the meeting."   After you formulate a good EI […]

Reviewing Call Plans with colleagues is one of the best ways to make sure that the tool is applied effectively to organizing meetings and getting the most out of every customer dialogue. G.R.O.W. coaching can be used to structure Call Plan reviews so that each session results in actionable decisions on how to best prepare for a customer meeting. The four parts of a GROW review are:Goal: Agree to a goal for the review sessionReality: Briefly discuss the context of the meeting w […]

When we are conducting a Structured Opportunity Conversation around the issues that are most important to the client, it is worthwhile to consider where we are in process of qualifying the opportunity and how we are positioned within the account so that we use the appropriate language.As we find out "the what" (what is important to a particular individual and what they value) directly from "the who" (the key stakeholder), we begin to see how opinions differ within t […]

Beliefs are the foundation to all behavior… correction, make that ALL behavior. Even behavior that seems crazy is driven by beliefs.The guy who jumps off the bridge believes that down there is better than up here. Actions don't have to make sense.  We all believe differently… and I "believe" that's a great thing.If you want to change your behavior, first change your beliefs.  Henry Ford once said: "If you think you can do […]

A few times in my career I have seen the following situation: A big project is on the table and it has come down to final presentations from a select group of vendors. The pitch is made in front of all the decision makers. All important points are covered, the price is within range and the solution meets their needs. Yet the deal is still lost. In the debrief the buyer says something like, "You guys seem to have a good solution but it just didn’t really excite us." […]

I've been speaking with sales leaders lately about adoption of sales methodologies – specifically, how to "sell" them to their own sales teams. One thing that became apparent to me following these conversations was that getting buy-in for a new sales methodology is very similar to selling a solution to a client.Anyone familiar with our own sales methodology here at Ninety Five 5 knows that we're big proponents of understanding where the customer is coming […]

As many of you know, we're big believers in "call plans" here at Ninety Five 5. The idea of a call plan is to help your team prepare for and execute an effective meeting or phone conversation.  We design them around client meetings, but call plans can be used in any number of meetings – internal, employee meetings, for instance. Today I'd like to discuss two important elements of a call plan: the "End in Mind" and "Key Beliefs." […]